More Cap Making Observations

[Kansas Jake]

Cabelas has 1200 Cap gun caps for $2.99. Made in Germany, Parris brand.

 

[user 48702]

Sure the punched out cups don't look pretty. They do the job for most of us.You don't offer anything better. If you use punched out role caps all them layers of paper will affect the power of the charge.You don't get that if the dots are lifted off the paper and then used in the cup. The role caps aren't as cheap as they used to be. If you use several dots per cup the cost per cup can easily get higher than using the powders. Plus the powders are more powerful and work better. Been there and done that.

Didn't intend to strike a nerve, sounds like you got a burr under your saddle today. If you reread my above post, I stated that I have never made homemade caps, the post was only a suggestion as to how to use a hollow tube leather punch vice sitting at the table and whittling out the dots with a pair of scissors. Also stated that I found a punch diameter that will cut them to fit the primer cup without any fiddling around with the dot. Now as to whether dots are more powerful with or without the paper backing, that should stand to reason. I posted several months ago that I had researched with my tool and die maker, having progressive punch and forming dies made to produce the percussion cups out of brass or copper. Even though the dies are small compared to the punch dies I currently use in the shop, they are still astronomical to make for the piece they produce. Last estimate was $12,000 for the die set, and you would have to sell 750,000 before you would see any profit, selling each finished brass cup at .02 per unprimed piece/cup. The quality and appearance of the brass cup would be equal to or better than a Remington cap.

 

[Buckskinquin]

Gonna try something different. Saw a YouTube using 22 lr bullet, stripped of bullet and powder then cut down BP #11 primers. Seemed wasteful, but video showed they worked. Picked up a handful of empty brass at range. I’ve heard German toy gun caps are powerful enough to use as caps. So, I’m gonna trim down the empty brass, cut down caps (2400, $21.00) glue in brass. Will report on result.

 

[n.h.schmidt]

Ok Gunny. I apologize,I was too quick with that. No insult was intended. It would be nice to have equipment to make better cups.Nobody is going to spend that kind of money for it though. I went down the toy pistol cap road some years ago.Did the punch out thing with a paper punch. Pretty much maxed out with 5 per cup still had a lot of failure to fires. Then went to harvesting the dots from the paper.I used ten to twelve dots per cup. That was a BIG improvement Finally had something that worked. Best with BP though.Not as good with Pyrodex (my real goal). At the cost of the role caps today ,it's a lot cheaper to do the powders.You also have all the power you could want.
Buck $21.00 per 2400 wow that's robbery.If I was still using them at 12 dots per cup ,that would only make 200.

 

[Center_shot]

Tagged for future reference.

 

[russellshaffer]

Pretty easy to make one if you have a lathe or a friend with one. It only took me three tries to get a good one, but I'm not a machinist. The dimensions are all here. I cut the slot for the aluminum sheet with a hacksaw and used a triangle file to do the teeth. I use one punched out cap and a scoop made from a small pistol primer to dump in some fine powder of your choice. They work fine but don't feed through my loaders.

 

[Center_shot]

Cool to build one yourself (if you have equipment and knowhow), but the one available from 22reloader.com is a nice piece of kit and worth the $50 to me.

 

[smoothshooter]

I've been using one of the commercial "kits" to make percussion caps for about a year now. I admit to only making a few hundred until now. I was just using them at the range while continuing to use store-bought caps in the field. For the time being, there are no store-bought caps to buy. Additionally, I hit some snags with my caps. For the first time, a few caps did not explode (at a range session). I do not know if it is because they were loaded poorly, 6-months old, or some other factor. Introduce a new rifle. This rifle shredded the caps. Previously I was getting quite a deformed cap upon firing, but this rifle apparently has a sharp nipple with a lot of taper. Some of the caps ended up with the nipple coming through and the cap remains down on the nipple, like the nipple punched a hole in the cap. Actually, some fail to fire caps did end up with a hole in them.

I've changed a few things and made a big improvement. I bought the thinnest brass and copper sheets I could find at the francise Art stores. They all ended up too thick. I went back to the good old soda can, but instead of a single ply, I folded the strips and made double-ply. These are much more rigid caps. They stay together and some could be re-used (not that I'm going to use them). I had concerns about the two layers separating but that has not happened.

I mix the priming compound in a glass dish. I began using an "Artistic" paint brush with "real hair" to mix and fold the 4 ingredients in the glass dish. This brush is about 5/8 wide. It allows me to get all the fine powder into one spot and fold it over and over. It easy to move around and separate the priming mixture throughout the glass dish.

For putting the priming mixture into the caps I was just pouring it in there from the little scoop that comes with the kit, or a teaspoon. I got some little plastic funnels from the doctors office. They go on the thing they look in your ears and nose with. The tip of this fits in the percussion cup just right. I use the amount of mixture I want in a little scoop and pour it into the funnel. The wider part of the funnel helps get it in there without spillage. Then I ease up the funnel and the mixture stays put in there.

I was mixing Acetone and Duco in a little cup and trying to drizzle it into the percussion cup. Now I just put a small amount of acetone on a teaspoon and squirt in a few drops of the Duco. Using a wood stick, I mix it right on the spoon and then "walk" a drop off the end of the spoon using the wood stick, and into the percussion cup.

One rifle has nipples that are apparently a slightly different size or configuration than my others. These home-made caps go on kind of loose, they are too open to close around the contour of the nipple. I take the nipple and hold it in a pair of pliers with rubber ends. Then I put each cap on that nipple and give it a little squeeze to form it to the nipple. It will twist back off. Of course, use safety precautions. These caps still work on the other nipples because they will expand when I push them down onto the nipple, so no problem there. It worth a few minutes at home to form-fit the caps than to do it one at a time on a nipple that is installed on a loaded rifle.

WIth a few changes, my caps are more durable, more reliable and better fitting. Always open to learn another way to make the caps even better! Who knows when they're back in the stores and how long you have to stand on your head - or in line - to buy them.

Have you tried fingernail polish or clear lacquer paint to seal your priming compound in the cups?

 

[appalichian hunter]

spray hair stuff, like yer wife or your girl friend fogs up the crapper room with, Dont take much just a quick mist and let dry. And besides it combustible (at least thats what a friend told me)

 

[docmel]

I stay away from primer mixtures I use toy cap gun strip caps, one for each cap, which I do not seal with any type of concoction. Deformed caps I have found, may come from pressing the tool too quickly.

 

[preston cook]

The Duco diluted with acetone works. Also try putting the caps in cardboard punched with a pen
as a holder. Get some ultimate hold hairspray and spray the caps good at about 8 " Let
dry. Works for me. Faster than one at a time. Most hairspray dries good and is flammable.

 

[preston cook]

Be careful the prime when mixed will be ez to set off....Only made 2 batches going to trade mine off for about anything

 

[n.h.schmidt]

I have done the same thing. Mine was worse. My mistake was to crush out some lumps AFTER mixing the other powders. I still use the powders but I now mix wet using water. No risk with that

 

[johnetattoo]

I've tried a bunch of different cap making methods using the 22 reloader tool. The priming compound from them is the way to go if you leave out the dextrin and finish them off with a Duco and acetone mixture. I'll link the video if you're interested. The compound doesnt even try to fall out and you use WAY less priming compound.

 

[n.h.schmidt]

You are on to the better way as I can confirm. How much less prime are you using? Like if you made a single batch. Two scoops of large bag withe powder,one scoop of large bag black powder and one small scoop of the yellow powder in the small bag. How many cups can you charge? I made little scoops from the red plastic ring cap cups glued to match sticks. I finally settled on a scoop cut down to a third of orginal size. Make about 20 charges and is real good with the revolvers. You don't want a lot for the revolvers as more will cause cap fragments leading to jams .

 

[johnetattoo]

Sounds like you're using around the same amount as I am. I usually mix a double batch and make 36 caps at a time with enough left over to maybe do 10 more. I'll try to pay more attention to it and come up with a easy way to show how much I'm using per cap.

I'm thinking that a good starting point would be a CCI 11 cap around halfway full.

 

[johnetattoo]

Mistake reply read below as I don't know how to delete!

 

[johnetattoo]

Although crude and in typical redneck fashion....I have found a definite way to tell u how much priming compound I am using. If you happen to have an abundance of 3/32 heat shrink tubing lying around because you are a little bit of a nerd as well.....you can cut off exactly 2mm of it, glue a peice of paper onto the bottom, glue the entire monstrosity to the end of a matchstick and scoop out the same amount I use (leveled off)

 

[Fath3r0f7]

I received the tool a few days ago. Made around 150 caps, single layer. Maybe 20% misformed and unusable. I sawed a kerf in a piece of scrap hardwood just wide enough to fit a cap into. I can line up about 50 caps. Used straight acetone on one batch, alcohol on another. The alcohol took 10-15 minutes longer to dry. The powder fell out of a good number of caps. This is the first I have read about using Duco. What is the mix ratio?

I put a whole tube of Duco into a 16 oz bottle of acetone. Shake it good before each use. Haven’t had any caps lose the primer. Have made about a 1000 caps.

 

[oldsmokey]

The home made are mainly used in revolvers from my observations.

Hi, I use my homemade caps with my rifles mostly. I don't fire my revolvers all that much so with them I use MFG caps. Makes all the caps go further.

Stay Pure Black Gold Dirty.